The “Rocky” theme played. The crowd roared. Pierce hobbled out with drama dripping from every step. He was so hurt, he immediately began sprinting around the stunned Lakers defenders. He was in such pain, he hit consecutive three pointers late in the period that gave the Celtics the lead for good.

With that kind of injury mechanism, you can flip the corner of a meniscus over within your knee joint.  The meniscus is the moon shaped fibrocartilage structure between the femoral and tibial articular surfaces.  This results in some excruciating pain similar to stepping on a sharp piece of glass.  But since your muscles are contracting across the knee and pulling the joint surfaces together, the pain doesn’t immediately go away when you unload the limb.  Then, given relaxation or manipulation, the joint space can be opened up and the meniscus can flop back flat and the pain is gone.

Football has lost its face.

With his beard stubble and fiery eyes and gaping grin, has anybody ever symbolized the game’s rough-hewn hope better than Favre?

Football has lost its voice.

With his southern accent filling everything from his signals to his whoops to his tears, has anybody ever sounded like the sport’s small-town beginnings more than Favre?

Football has lost a chunk of its heart.

He’ll be remembered, by me, for an interview I conducted with him several years ago in a Green Bay Packers office.

He walked in wearing a tattered T-shirt and underwear. On the back of the underwear, in clear block letters, was printed the name, “IRVIN FAVRE.”

“What is that?” I asked.

“Oh, yeah,” he said. “Any time I go home to visit, the laundry gets all mixed up and I come back with my dad’s underwear.”

[ … ]

“We’re just regular people,” she said. “Brett is just a regular guy who happens to know how to throw a football. It’s fun, ain’t it?”